The Official "How I Made It Home During Yesterday's Flood" Thread

There are going to be alot of people that have damage to their cars. People don't realize that the water doesn't have to be high enough to get inside the car to actually damage the vehicle.

The problem is, especially on smaller cars is that the air intake duct usually sits below the fender or behind the front bumper cover. If the water is high enough (and usually doesnt have to be that high), the air intake acts like a vaccumm and sucks the water right in the engine. Best case scenario, your car stalls because the mass air flow sensor gets wet, your brakes get wet and need to be cleaned and your bearings have to be re-packed (if they aren't sealed). Worst case scenario, a significant amount of water gets into the engine cylinders and you bend or break a rod, which usually means your engine will have to be replaced (water can't be compressed).

RMT and anyone else that drove through high water:

Even though you think you might not have any damage, you would be wise to check a few things:

1) Check your air filter and see if its wet or if it looks like it was wet and dried out (if it was wet, the fibers will have a warped look to them).

2) Check your oil. If it has a chocolate milk look to it, then you need to get the oil/filter changed and possibly have the engine flushed.

3) Check your transmission fluid. It should be a nice clear red color. If it has water in it, then it will have a pinkish look to it and if it has a alot of water in it, it might even look like Pepto Bismol. Transmission will have to be flushed and the filter changed out.

4) If you got water in your interior, definitely have it checked out by your dealer. Your EC (engine) and SRS (airbag) modules are usually mounted under your seat or under the center console. If the connections arent cleaned, they can become inoperable down the road.

5) If your carpet got wet, make sure that whoever cleans it, replaces the foam padding underneath it also.


If anyone has to file an insurance claim and needs any advice on repairs to their vehicle, feel free to email me.

 

what him ^^^ say, with one exception.

the only way your transmission fluid is going to be a clear red is if it is fairly new....If you have significant amounts of mileage on your car, the tranny fluid will be a dark red or even god forbid, a brownish red if it is overdue to get changed.

otherwise....get them cars checked out by a reputable mechanic.

yes, there are reputable ones out there..

 

Here's my story:

My boss has paid for several of us (including himself) to take a business Spanish course on Monday evenings in League City, and he's pretty much a die-hard, so I usually try to make it myself. Only six students bothered to show up last night, and he and I were two of them. Class got out around 20 to nine, and my stereo is currently messed up. I wanted to get home quickly to see how the Rockets did and what was up with the weather. So....like a moron, I probably drove a bit faster than I should have considering the conditions. He lives in the Forest of Friendswood, and I live about a mile futher near Dixie Farm Road and 518.

I drive an F-250 4X4, so I don't have to worry about high water as much as the next guy, but high water wasn't my exitement for the evening. The rain and wind were just horrible on the way home, but the freeway was empty. I got to 2351 off of 45, and I exited as usual and took a left onto 2351 as usual. The rain and wind really started to pick up then, and it was bad to begin with. I got all the way up to around the entrance to his neighborhood (which is close to 518), and things kind of changed. Honestly, I don't think I can articulate it exactly. It was certainly more windy, but it's not like my truck was being moved around or anything. The rain didn't let up any, but it was falling.....differently. The best way I could describe it would be "sheets" of rain, but they weren't everyday "sheets" of rain. You could see them coming in the headlights, and when they'd hit you, it felt like big buckets of water being poured right on your windshield. I drove a bit further, and then I started getting hit by other stuff. Mostly, it was just leaves, but there was the occasional small branch. I could see stuff flying around all over the place, but it wasn't like any of it was swirling......it was all flying in the same direction.

Anyway, I made it through without anything other than a "weird" feeling about the whole experience. I got home, and I saw on the news that a tornado spawning storm was going over Friendswood, and I immediately thought that was what I had just gone through.

However, my wife woke me up this morning just to tell me that a tornado had hit right at that spot at exactly the time I would have been there. I just spoke to my boss a few minutes ago, and he would have been a few minutes behind me last night. His wife told him when he got home last night that he had just missed the tornado by a few minutes. His house wasn't damaged, but he knows someone close by whose house was destroyed.

Crazy stuff. Guess I dodged a bullet.

 

I made it home... but my car didn't.

It got flooded out at work, parked on the street. I was able to drive it out of the high water, but after that it just stopped working.

I called my insurance company, I have a $500 deductable but unfortunately no rental insurance. I have a car for the next four days as my wife is away on business.

Today it's getting towed to the dealership and we'll just have to take it from there.



poor baby... she's a 2000 Honda Civic with less than 30,000 miles...

 

I made the mistake of waiting until yesterday around noon to leave Missouri City to come back to College Station. It took me an hour twenty on the Beltway to get from Bissonnet to I-10. One part was flooded out (water was about halfway up a person's shin), so they had to bottleneck it down to one lane, and then there was also a wreck farther down. Talk about fun. Hour forty five trip took me well over three hours. I won't complain too much though, it could have been a lot worse.